2005 Versions
The 2005 through 2008 editions are various phases the series went through before finally proceeding with the 2011 comic series. Over three years, the series went from being set in space, to sharing universes with anthropomorphic animals, to being about a globetrotting private eye team. Summary Jack Arthur is a private eye failing to come across much business, but is visited by a Dr. Byrd, inviting him to join a highly-advanced investigative team. Jack does so just as a mastermind bank robber, only known as Pinhead, joins forces with his cellmate Birdbrain and go on to kidnap a local child. Jack recovers the girl, finding out she's his boss's daughter, gets promoted, and makes a lifelong enemy of Pinhead. Working with an odd handful of independent detectives, Jack and company travel the world to solve crimes wherever they're hired. Over the series, Jack even gets married, and solves an interplanetary civil war. Original Concept When Fauna was eleven years old, she watched a two-part Duck Dodgers episode, made originally in 2004, that inspired her to create a space opera of her own. The series was all but identical to the Duck Dodgers TV series. The concept included a princess of a planet called Dovega constantly hiring Jack due to a crush on him, an assortment of colourful, rounded robots throughout the universe, and a money named Skunk capable of full speech, ship repair, and piloting. The same year, the villains Pinhead and Birdbrain were copied straight from a Little Audrey cartoon and added to the cast, with young Fauna hoping to add a steady villain. Jack in this version was an unreliable moron, usually solving cases by accident, much to the dismay of a prototype Mara Wright and the talking monkey. The project remained unnamed for much of its 2005 run, with "Tales Of The Earth Federation" (named for the protection organization Jack and company worked for) considered only briefly. 2006 Edition The following year, Fauna turned thirteen, and the Earth Federation was downsized to one city, named at random via Fauna typing random letters into Microsoft Word 2000 until something had a correction suggestion resembling a big city's name. Curtly named Westbury Detectives, she began producing small comics and episodes full time. Princess Tahara became a young girl with parents, with Dovega as a small country, and the Tahara subplot was phased out within the year. Pinhead acquired a small gang of motley delinquents, including a woman who was part plant and could communicate with flowers, a talking chicken, and an anthropomorphic fox with gloves that could shoot fire. Birdbrain was also changed to have been Pinhead's childhood friend. As a tie-in to a Bucky O'Hare-inspired series that Fauna had begun working on in January 2006, Lunar Rabbit, Westbury Detectives was made a sequel to the series. The animal and human universes were hinged together by a portal tunnel, and anthropomorphic animals walked Earth freely. Dr. Byrd and Becky were originally from the animal universe, with Byrd's wife working as a teacher in their homeland. At one point it was considered the series, normally humourous and brash, would end on a dramatic note, with one scene being Pinhead dying in the process of saving Becky. 2008 Edition A short-lived version in 2008 featured Pinhead in his early twenties with a design similar to his Cinderelliot incarnation, Birdbrain as a pubescent orphan with romantic implications between him and Pinhead, and Byrd and Becky being the only animals in the series. The series focused heavily on the antagonists, which Fauna found "smothering". Episodes An undetermined amount of episodes were conceived, as Fauna was in middle school at the time and concepts came up quite frequently and some were never recorded. Seven episodes were started in 2005 but were deleted en masse that year due to an accident with her younger brother. Every episode was fast-paced and goofy in nature; they were titled after a pop culture reference or a pun, compared to the later technique of using obscure song titles. Approximately twenty-five were started, planned or recorded over the course of two years. These included: *'Frankie Goes To Russia': Jack and his girlfriend Ruth go to Moscow in the middle of a secret police rise, and Mara and Becky are sent to rescue them from capture. Along the way, they meet speakeasy performer and drag king spy, Esther Spalko. *'Night Of The Bat': A thief and refugee of the animal world, Batricia, appears and befriends the talking bear of the detective team, Bearis. A member of Pinhead's gang fals in love with her, and both sides struggle to either recruit her or reform her. *'I Love, I Hate': Young fashion designer Ruth Saunders has her warehouse broken into, and during an investigation, Jack falls madly in love with her. They begin to date, and Jack almost suspects Ruth robbed herself for the insurance money, but the culprit turns out to be her emotionally-unstable younger brother. *'Don't Eat There': The detectives are offered a merchandising contract from a McDonald's parody, turn it down, and are subject to threats and kidnapping from a psychotic clown. Also contains Disney parodies and a cameo from Lunar Rabbit and his squad. This episode was fully written and is also regarded by Fauna as the worst episode ever conceived for any version of Westbury Detectives. Cancellation The comic halted production for about a year in 2008 while Fauna attempted to create new designs for the series. The lack of desirable designs for Pinhead and Jack alike left Fauna unsure of what to do, and after the hiatus, Westbury Detectives was updated with the 2009 version. Regenesis Fauna has not been able to set a date, but a oneshot comic has been considered, featuring the 2005 concept in its entirety. The fragments of a pilot episode plot had been recovered, and Fauna was fascinated with them enough to consider bringing them to life. The oneshot is in planning, but has not been cancelled. Category:Series